Senators seek $30M for Great Lakes infrastructure

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.—A group of U.S. senators is asking the Army Corps of Engineers to pump more money into maintaining harbors in the Great Lakes region, which has a backlog of projects.

A letter sent Friday and signed by 13 members of the Senate Great Lakes Task Force says the region should receive at least $30 million from a spending bill approved last month by Congress.

Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan and Mark Kirk of Illinois are co-chairmen of the task force.

They say the Great Lakes are a vital shipping route for many raw materials, but their navigational infrastructure needs work such as dredging harbors and channels, maintaining piers and jetties and repairing lock systems.